


The Same Set of Stars

by soaringkomet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Veteran Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-01 16:34:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16768837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soaringkomet/pseuds/soaringkomet
Summary: After having to leave the Air Force, Shiro went back to college and eventually transferred to a University, where he found himself alone once again. But he forms an unlikely friendship with a junior named Keith, who has an obsession with space and eventually persuades Shiro to join the astronomy club on campus. Perhaps, for the first time in a long time, Shiro can be himself.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first ever fic so I don't exactly know what I'm doing lol. But I couldn't find a Veteran Shiro that went to college fic, so I decided to try and create one myself. If there are any tags that should be added, let me know!

Shiro had always thought of himself as a very prepared person, but evidently, he was not prepared enough when it came to making sure he brought everything he needed for moving into an apartment. This was his first time having to bring everything he owned to a new place, after all. But it wasn’t his first time relocating. Far from it. 

His life a few years ago was dedicated to serving his country as a pilot in the Air Force. He was almost at the end of his four-year commitment when he lost what mattered to him most. There was little option but for him to leave this life of flying around the skies and choose a different path in life. Then began a period of grieving and taking things slow at a local community college. He often found himself unable to do the type of work he used to love back in high school, but he persevered nonetheless. And a few years after that, he was accepted into a university that was a few hours south of where he lived. The 26-year-old had no choice but to leave his family, but he knew it was the right decision if he wished to advance his career. 

But Shiro forgot contact lens solution, so he would need to run to the store to get some of that. 

Thankfully his apartment was only about a ten-minute walk from the campus convenience store. It was still summer session, so the campus was quite empty. But it was huge and Shiro had no idea where he was going. The benefit of having such a huge campus, however, was that everything was marked on his phone’s map app. 

Shiro managed to make it to the store, which brought him instant relief from the heat wave happening outside. The solution was easy enough to locate. But he cursed his sweet tooth, which forced him to buy a small carton of ice cream and some cookies. It was extremely hot outside and he was sweating like crazy. He deserved this. 

After a short wait in line, the cashier called out for the next person in line, which happened to be Shiro. He placed all his items on the counter, and happened to glance down at all the small items for sale by the cash register. There was beef jerky, sour candies, and.... chocolate-hazelnut filled truffles. 

Oh... Adam loved those. 

“Cash or card?” 

Who knows what Adam would think of Takashi now. 

“Excuse me.” 

Shiro looked up, snapping himself out of his daydream. He found himself looking right into the dark blue eyes of the cashier, who had the same question as a moment ago. 

“Cash or card?” 

“Oh, sorry! Card.”, Shiro apologized. He handed the cashier at his card and glanced right back down, embarrassed to look at him in the eyes again. But the cashier wasn’t done with him. 

“Would you like me to put everything in a bag?” 

Shiro figured he already caused the poor guy enough trouble, so he declined, and his debit card was returned. 

“Have a nice day.” 

The cashier gave what Shiro was 90% sure to be a fake smile with his response. 

“Y-you too!”, Shiro replied and scooped up his purchase. Shiro gave the cashier’s chest a glance to search for a name tag. There was one, but it seemed to be written almost illegibly in chalk. All he could figure out was that his name started with a K before it would seem awkward how long he was staring at the poor guy’s chest. 

Shiro really should have asked for a bag. It was trickier than he originally thought it would be to carry anything else with a carton of ice cream. But he would rather not go back in there after already embarrassing himself before school even started. He was not ready to be a new student again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Not that going to the store was considered an adventure or anything, but Shiro had done enough for the day. After a summer that consisted almost exclusively of going to the gym and running, talking to people again is something that would take practice. Shiro made it into his apartment and took the next few days finishing his move in, meaning he didn’t really leave the place. Thankfully, there was nobody else there to judge him. He was paying for a one-person apartment, which wasn’t cheap, but definitely worth it because of the privacy it granted. 

He was used to feeling alone for the past few years. He figured there wouldn’t be much difference living alone, either. 

Welcome week had then arrived, which presented a new series of challenges. Shiro desperately wanted to make friends, but couldn’t force himself out of his apartment to partake in any of them. He had joined a few groups on social media and read that they would be doing their first meetups then, but the thought of actually going to any was too much for him to handle. 

All of those activities were optional, but when it came to eventually attending classes, Shiro knew he would have to drag himself out of bed. And without dedication, he would not have a good time. His classes this quarter consisted of two engineering classes, one math class, and one physics class. Transferring had not done him any favors, so he would have to be taking some lower level classes before he could get into the upper division ones later in the year, assuming he passed everything on the first try. He was seen as extremely smart from a very young age, but Shiro did not know if he had the spirit in him anymore to really dedicated his life to his studies like he used to. But he made it this far, so he needed to at least try. 

Simply put, class was class. It was a lot of work, just as Shiro had expected. But to his surprise he was not struggling as he feared he might be. These kinds of classes were actually tolerable, and while his homework would take hours to finish each day, he didn’t go out of his way to get to know any of his classmates since he didn’t really need their help, and thus had not really made any friends. Sure, he did get invited to a few study groups and went, but people were always attracted to him in that way where they wanted to get to know him because they knew he would be able to help them. And Shiro is definitely not the kind of guy to say no when somebody needs help, so he felt it was the right thing to do and meet up with them. Didn’t matter if you were a guy or girl, everyone loved Shiro. That’s how it had always been. 

What else wasn’t new was the way his classmates stared at him during these study groups. He always had the sense they took any opportunity they could to stare at his body whenever he looked down or was helping someone with a question. He really couldn’t blame them. He had a giant scar going across his nose, as well as several smaller ones on his left arm. His right arm was a whole other story, and was in fact now a prosthetic. If neither of those things caught your attention, surely the white tuft of hair on his forehead would. All of these things were a result of his time in the Air Force. So, there was all that, plus the fact that he was ridiculously good looking. 

He never really liked the attention his body gave him, but he knew his future career would be due to his abilities in school, and not the way he appeared. Sadly, despite his wishes to keep a low profile, his classmates had other plans. One in particular, Jenny, had a deep fixation on him. She was in the same math class as Shiro, and was seriously struggling. Shiro and Jenny had been in the same study group for about two weeks when she asked if they could meet up privately. Shiro knew this wasn’t a good sign but agreed since it was the right thing to do, and they had a test coming up soon that he knew she would need all the help she could get with. 

She reserved a study room, which was another bad sign. 

And eventually the day to study with her came, and they met up just as agreed upon. Jenny hugged Shiro a bit too long for his liking when he arrived, but then things continued as normal. That was until she kept inching closer to him, up to the point where their legs touched on occasion. Shiro was definitely getting uncomfortable, but did his best to remained composed. She was actually doing a pretty good job at learning the material this time around, so he kept giving her encouragement whenever she got something right. Then she decided to put her hand on top of Shiro’s. Shiro immediately recoiled and stood up. She apologized immediately, and Shiro said it was okay but he needed to go. Jenny gave a soft thank you, and he grabbed his stuff and exited the study room. Shiro could not believe this was happening already, three weeks into school! 

Was he thinking about this too hard? He always overreacted with situations like these nowadays. Maybe she just wanted to show how much she appreciated his help. 

Regardless, it would be a while before he could tutor anyone one-on-one again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro decides to go to a concert at school to encourage himself to meet new people. Once there, he sees a familiar face.

After the study room incident, Shiro was understandably shaken. It’s not that he didn’t want to get to know people, it’s just that he figured he would end up being more of a problem to them than it was worth. 

What was he doing? Hiding out all day in his room? A few years ago, he may have even been the kind of guy to join a fraternity and go wild at their parties, but that simply wasn’t him anymore. Instead he had taken up the hobby of learning to cook, which was going miserably. Patience yields focus, he told himself. 

But finally, over half way through the quarter, Shiro decided he had to do something about this predicament. By checking social media, he found that there was going to be a concert Friday evening. It appeared his school was able to get some pretty good artists, as he even knew the name of the headliner. If there was one way to get used to college life again, this was it. He would just have to handle the crowds and the loud noises for four hours straight. But that was no easy task for someone who literally ran out of a study session a few weeks earlier. 

It would be such a simple thing to do. It didn’t even cost money to go as he was a student at the school. So Shiro was confident he could make it inside the concert area in one piece, but didn’t know how long he would last once he got in. When Friday came around, he psyched himself up even more, telling himself that he needs to do this for his own good. 

Shiro did manage to make it to the concert area and got in, but he made a beeline straight for the grassy hill that was bit away from the excitement happening on the stage, and sat down there. What was the point of going to a concert if he wasn’t going to have fun like everyone else? Even worse, he recognized quite a few of the people that were walking around or dancing from his classes. He knew it was a dumb idea to come to this. Someone would probably try and get him to go dance and he would end up running away like he always did. 

The moment he had that thought, he backed up further onto the hill, furthering himself away from the crowd even more. Far from the commotion in the center, Shiro found himself enjoying the music, even if it was rap he would never listen to in a million years if he had the choice. 

Then came a tap on his left shoulder. Startled, Shiro looked to his left and saw nothing, so he immediately turned to his right. Standing there was the cashier he embarrassed himself in front of before school started. Now this was even more embarrassing. 

“Hey”, the cashier said to Shiro. “I remember you. I never figured I’d find you all the way up here, far from all the partying.” 

“Oh... you’re the cashier from the campus store!” Shiro pretended he didn’t immediately recognize the guy, but of course he actually did. “Well this is my first concert so I figured I should take things slow. But I’m actually really enjoying it from up here.” 

“Fair enough. Mind if I join you in your solitude?” 

Shiro couldn’t think of a way to decline his offer, so he said he could. 

The mystery man sat down on Shiro’s right side and looked towards the crowd. But Shiro had so many questions for him. 

“So, what’s your name?” 

“Keith.” Shiro knew his nametag started with a K! 

“Well, my name is Takashi but my friends call me Shiro.” Keith kept staring at the crowd, which Shiro thought was weird, but he continued with his questions. “Hey, didn’t we only meet once for like a minute over a month ago? How do you even remember me?” 

Keith turned to his left, and looked at Shiro. 

“How could I forget?” Keith pointed to his own face, meaning he was referring to Shiro’s. 

“Haha, yeah. My scar.” Shiro looked down, realizing that it would in fact be weirder if someone didn’t remember him since he stood out so much. 

But what Keith said next really surprised him. 

“No... it was your eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone whose eyes were such a beautiful shade of gray before. They’re almost silver.”” 

“Oh, wow... well thank you?” This was a very strange response, but Shiro appreciated it. “Sorry, I just figured it was my nose scar since that’s one of the first things people notice about me.” 

Keith chuckled. “Well that’s definitely not something too special to me. You see... we match.” Keith moved his head a bit and wiped the right side of his face with the sleeve of his jacket. To Shiro’s surprise, Keith also had a scar on his face, which he was concealing with makeup. 

Now it appeared Keith’s turn to be embarrassed. “I don’t like people starting at me, especially when I work.” 

“Oh no worries, I totally understand! I just don’t have the luxury.” Shiro waved his right arm. “But I do think it looks great if you do ever decide to stop covering it up.” 

That didn’t seem to improve Keith’s sudden mood change, so Shiro returned to questioning him. 

“Were you going to go dance?” Shiro averted his gaze from Keith to where the crowd was. 

“Nah. I’ve never been much of a dancer. And anyways, I would hardly call that dancing.” 

Keith had a point. The huge crowd that was in front of the stage was filled with students grinding on each other and doing who knows what else. To Shiro, these were more or less a bunch of children, especially the freshman who were fresh out of high school, so he couldn’t blame them for wanting to act a little crazy. 

Shiro didn’t really know what else to say, or at least he didn’t want to think he was playing a game of 20 Questions with Keith. So, the two sat in silence for a while. Eventually, Shiro noticed that Keith had stopped looking at the crowd, and was instead looking at the sky. Keith also had very pretty eyes, which Shiro recalled from their brief interaction at the campus store. Although in this lighting, they looked almost purple. Keith must have noticed Shiro was staring at him, and quickly turned his head towards Shiro. 

But once again Keith shocked Shiro from what he said next. 

“Do you want to go somewhere else? This concert is pretty boring.” 

Shiro took a second to reply. This man he literally just met was now asking him to go somewhere with him. “Uh... where?” 

“I know a good spot nearby to go look at the stars. We can take my motorcycle, if that’s alright with you.” 

Shiro was always fascinated by space, although as long as he got to fly he was happy, which is why he originally went to the Air Force instead of trying to become an astronaut. He had chosen aerospace engineering as his major on a whim, and already knew a ton about engineering and physics, but he still didn’t know much about actual space besides the simpler facts he learned from clickbait articles online. 

Shiro decided he had nothing to lose, even if it meant risking his other arm by trusting a stranger and becoming a passenger on his motorcycle. Shiro nodded. 

Keith and Shiro left the concert together, and they walked to Keith’s motorcycle. Keith conveniently had another helmet, which he handed to Shiro. 

“Hop on!” Keith yelled. 

Shiro put on his helmet and carefully got on the motorcycle. This was his first time being on one, so he was understandably nervous. 

Almost out of nowhere, Keith started the motorcycle, and Shiro held onto Keith tightly. Keith only seemed to speed up the tighter he held on, which wasn’t very reassuring. Shiro never thought this would be the way he would die (he knew he probably wouldn’t die but he wasn’t being very optimistic), but life was just full of surprises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any future updates may take a while since this is all I wrote so far and finals are coming up haha. Also season 8....

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is [@soaringkomet](https://soaringkomet.tumblr.com)! Feel free to talk about cartoons with me. :D


End file.
